Higher School Of Economics Research Articles

The Language of Praise in Russian Students’ Evaluation of Teaching

Recent decades have seen a dramatic rise in student evaluation of teaching (SET). However, they have overwhelmingly focused on quantitative ratings, neglecting students’ written feedback. This study addresses the lack of qualitative research on SET by applying a semantic theory and computational methods for analysing the language of positive feedback comments provided by students of the Higher School of Economics (HSE) in Russia. Analysing a corpus of student commentary about teaching also contributes to the theory of pragmatics as the approach to analysing qualitative evaluations of teaching is based on the premise that students’ positive feedback can be treated as a sort of the compliment/praise speech act reflecting cultural specificity. Our findings showed that quantitatively the most common semantic pattern used by HSE students is ACTOR + (AUGMENTOR) EVALUATOR + PHYSICAL/MENTAL ACTION PERFORMED BY THE ACTOR + (AUGMENTOR) EVALUATOR. Thus, HSE students tend to praise the teacher more often than the other components of the teaching process and the teacher’s behaviour, thoughts, and feelings are viewed as more important than skills and speech.

POSTGRADUATE STUDENT OF THE 2010S: A SOCIOLOGICAL PORTRAIT

Currently, much attention in the field of higher education is paid to the problems of the third stage – postgraduate education. The main problems are: reducing the awarding of scientific degrees, decreasing the reproduction of the personnel capacity of higher school and scientific activities. The purpose of the paper is to study the trajectories of postgraduate education, based on the data of empirical research “Professional trajectories of postgraduate students” at the Dubna State University and at the “National Research University “Higher School of Economics”. The main methods were a sociological survey and analysis of secondary information. Based on the results of the study, a portrait of a modern postgraduate student has been compiled. Two identical studies produced mostly different results. This suggests that there is a need for such research.

Expert System in the Installment Tuition Payment System Using the Weighted Product Method (Case Study at Dharma Andalas University)

Dharma Andalas University is a change in form from the Dharma Andalas Higher School of Economics (STIE). Dharma Andalas University is one of the private universities in the city of Padang which is under the auspices of the Andalas Dharma Education Foundation (YPDA) which is directly fostered by the Andalas University alumni association. Dharma Andalas University is a private university so operational costs come from student tuition fees. Payment of tuition fees is an obligation of every student, considering that tuition fees are quite expensive, Dharma Andalas University provides relief for students to make tuition payments in installments. The purpose of this study is to assist the leadership in making a decision to pay installments using the Weighted Product method. In this study, the data processed is the data of students who apply for installment tuition payments at Dharma Andalas University. The data processing is to determine the criteria for each alternative by multiplying for attribute match reting, then rank with the attribute weight value which results in the vector value V, then the vector value V is ranked from the highest value to the lowest value where the highest value will be prioritized. Furthermore compared to the manual calculation method with a system that has been made, the results are the same with an accuracy rate of 100%, so that it can be recommended to the leadership to help make decisions about the payment of tuition installments.

Online Learning Platforms: Reconstructing Modern Higher Education

Online learning platforms play an important role in modern education. However, they may not be sufficiently represented in educational institutions. In this regard, the research objectives are set, namely: organize a comparative analysis of several popular distance learning platforms (Moodle, Open edX and NEO LMS) in accordance with the criteria (system features, content support, content creation, user management, reporting system; conduct consultation with university teachers, during which they will highlight the benefits of distance education systems from the point of view of the teacher; and test students, who use the online platform for learning in order to clarify its impact on academic performance. While consulting with 40 teachers of Russian and Chinese universities (Moscow State University, Higher School of Economics, Peking University, Tsinghua University), the following advantages of distance platforms have been highlighted: greater freedom of access, lower education prices, the possibility of dividing the content of the e-course into modules, flexibility of education, the ability to keep up with modern pace of life, and the ability to define criteria for assessing knowledge. According to the results of testing, after working with the Moodle platform, students (300 people in total) with different academic performance have improved their results. The most significant improvement has occurred among students with “unsatisfactory” grades; more than 50% have improved their results. Analysis of distance learning systems, testing of students and consultation with teachers allow saying that such platforms help to make education more accessible and convenient. Besides, information technologies are introduced in the educational process. That is why it is important to implement such platforms in higher education.

PROBLEMS OF DISTANCE EDUCATION

The purpose of this paper is to identify problem areas in the field of distance education. These areas are educational content, the form in which the material is presented, the quality of distance education, the inclusion of distance education in full-time education programs, as well as the focus on the customer in education with a view to the student's employment. To identify the educational content of distance education portals, the authors have performed a comparative analysis of the most popular distance education sites. In the analysis, the authors have assessed the sites, focusing on a comparison of goals, the orientation of training, the attractiveness of design, and the ease of use. The quality of distance education is evaluated based on open statistical sources of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation and the Pension Fund of Russia which collect information about graduates of Russian universities and verify them based on the personal insurance policy number. The authors also consider research data from the Higher School of Economics. The main results of the study include an analysis of successes in the development of distance education by large educational organizations, assessment of the quality of education based on statistical data on employment, and identification of trends and ways of using distance education in full-time education programs. The analysis presented in the paper can be used in organizing correspondence courses and distance education programs, as well as using distance learning methods in full-time education programs.

The weigthlessness of the imaginable or liberal-conservative dissonance: reflections on the book by S. R. Matveev. Rev.: Matveev S. R.Freedom and Order: The liberal conservatism of Francois Guizot. Moscow: Publishing House of the Higher School of Economics, 2019. 232 p.

The weigthlessness of the imaginable or liberal-conservative dissonance: reflections on the book by S. R. Matveev. Rev.: Matveev S. R.Freedom and Order: The liberal conservatism of Francois Guizot. Moscow: Publishing House of the Higher School of Economics, 2019. 232 p.

Review of the 145th meeting of the Dispute club “Economic Policy Knots” of the Association of the Russian Economic Think Tanks on the Topic “What Anti-Crisis Measures are Needed and Possible in Russia?”

The work is devoted to a review of the results of the 145rd meeting of the Dispute Club “Eco-nomic Policy Knots” of the Association of Russian Economic Think Tanks (hereinafter referred to as ARETT) on the topic "What anti-crisis measures are necessary and possible in Russia?". The purpose of the event was to discuss the consequences of the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic for the Russian economy and the necessary anti-crisis measures. Disputants were Ruben Enikolopov, Rector of the New Economic School, and Andrey Yakovlev, Director of the Institute for Industrial and Market Studies of the Higher School of Economics. The review presents the key ideas of the disputants, and also summarizes the main results of their answers to questions.

The Chinese dance: a mirror of cultural representations

ABSTRACT Dance is an important part of Chinese culture. Chinese dance is also part of the world’s cultural heritage. However, this cultural practice may be insufficiently illustrated in other countries. The purpose of this article is to determine the level of awareness about Chinese dance and the extent to which it is integrated into the world culture. A survey in this study involves 500 fourth-year students of Russian universities (in particular, Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia, Higher School of Economics, Moscow State Institute of International Relations, and the Lomonosov Moscow State University). Findings show a lack of awareness, a weak interest in and incomplete understanding of Chinese culture. These problems are addressable through cultural cooperation with Chinese universities, through lectures on Chinese culture, through thematic events, and through the arrangement of dance classes.

Measuring and Analyzing Income and Wealth in CIS Countries and Eastern Europe

Intensive discussions on a wide range of topics took place at the conference which was focused on measuring income and wealth in CIS countries and Eastern Europe, organized by IARIW and Higher School of Economics in Moscow in September 2019. The article deals with some topics of the conference.As the macroeconomic analysis shows, the impact of globalization on the distribution of global income is one of the factors changing the global centers of power. Research on multifactor productivity, the slowdown of which is observed according to some estimates during two recent decades, becomes more important. The development of tools using the purchasing power parities provides additional capacity in assessing the stratification of economies and helps expand macroeconomic estimates and analysis’ base.Along with the macroeconomic topics, the article deals with the key points of discussion on measuring income. One of the focus areas today is assessing poverty based on the multidimensional approach which allows enhancing substantively the poverty analysis. While considering the income stratification, the attention in the article is also paid to the definition of the middle class basing on the expenditures’ pattern, in addition to a standard definition based on the income level.

Результативность трудового поведения домохозяйств в условиях трансформации отношений собственности и условий занятости

Цитирование: Темницкий А.Л. (2020) Результативность трудового поведения домохозяйств в условиях трансформации отношений собственности и условий занятости // Мир России. Т. 29. № 2. С. 134–155. DOI: 10.17323/1811-038X-2020-29-2-134-155
 В настоящей статье проблема результативности в трудовом поведении наемных работников анализируется с позиций целей и интересов домохозяйства. В этой связи в качестве важнейших результирующих показателей трудового поведения рассматриваются размер оплаты труда, соотнесенный с затратами времени, удовлетворенность оплатой и работой в целом, уверенность в занятости. В качестве информационной базы исследования используются данные Российского мониторинга экономического положения и здоровья населения (RLMS-HSE) за 1994–2017 гг. В статье дается диагностика эффективности трудового поведения городских наемных работников, занятых на формальном рынке труда, с учетом изменений в отношениях собственности и стабильности занятости в организациях. С помощью регрессионного анализа с фиктивными переменными выявлен вклад занятости на частных предприятиях в объяснение размера зарплаты. Показаны признаки потери привлекательности занятости на частных предприятиях, сохранения стабильности условий занятости для абсолютного большинства работников (за исключением ситуации с рабочим временем), вынужденного характера трудовой и профессиональной мобильности, роста уверенности в занятости при различных проявлениях динамичности в поведении, невозможности уделять больше времени семье из-за неготовности поступиться возможностями для заработка.

Measurement of population income: Variants of estimating biases

Income is one of the most obvious and frequently used indicators of economic status and living standards. Surveys of households and individuals are the main sources of income data for sociologists and economists. Administrative data is added to them on a growing scale. Comparison of data obtained from different sources or surveys using different methods allows us to estimate biases, sources of errors, and demonstrates the absence of “ideal” income data in general. The review of foreign studies on this problem is supplemented by an example of calculations on data from the The Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey — Higher School of Economics (RLMS—HSE): we compare the compositional individual income, calculated as the sum of types of income, and the total personal income reported by respondents. The first measurement of individual incomes has turned out to be more consistent and definite, less prone to measurement error, but gives lower values of individual incomes. The differences of the total personal income reported by respondents and compositional individual income are due not so much to the inaccuracy of the summation and rounding as to “conceptual” features of understanding of personal income by some respondents. Such comparisons are necessary in order to understand the limitations of various measurements of income, grounded and reflexive choice of its specific indicators.

Corporate foresight for strategic innovation management: the case of a Russian service company

Purpose This paper aims to provide a detailed case study of a corporate foresight for innovation (CFI) project done by the Higher School of Economics’ (HSE) (Moscow, Russia) corporate foresight (CF) unit for a large state-owned Russian service company. It demonstrates how CFI methods lead to recommendations and how these recommendations result in decisions. Design/methodology/approach Drawing from being part of the project team, review of the project documents and interviews, the case describes a multi-phased CFI project which incorporated several CF methods. Techniques used for the project itself included grand challenges and trend analysis, analysis of best practices through use of benchmarking and horizon scanning, interviews, expert panels, wild card and weak signals analysis, cross impact analysis, SWOT and backcasting. The project used a broad-base of secondary information, expert panels consisting of company experts and HSE CF team personnel, interviews with senior management and an extensive literature review using HSE’s propriety iFORA system. Findings In all 17 CFI recommendation and over 100 implementation recommendations were made; 94 per cent of the CFI recommendations were accepted with most implemented at the time this case was written. The case also identifies five enabling factors that collectively both helped the CFI project and led to a high rate of recommendation acceptance and one factor that hindered CFI project success. Practical implications The case study provides detailed information and insight that can help others in conducting CF for innovation projects and establishes a link between CF methods and innovation-based recommendations and subsequent decisions. Originality/value In-depth case studies that show academe and practitioners how CFI leads to recommendations and is linked to subsequent decisions have been identified as a gap in the literature. This paper therefore seeks to address this need by presenting a detailed CF case for a corporate innovation project.

Inequality of Opportunity: Theory and Practice of Measurement Using RLMS-HSE Microdata

This paper measures the opportunity inequality in the Russian Federation using a non-parametric approach. The paper uses data from the 20th round of the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey — Higher School of Economics, which is a series of annual nation-wide representative surveys. Gender; type of township where the respondent was born; and educational status of the respondent’s parents were used as circumstance factors. The respondent’s income and earnings were chosen as the individual achievements. Calculations were made using two versions of the non-parametric approach: ex-ante, based on the “Min of Means” criterion, and ex-post, based on the “Mean of Mins” criterion. Several inequality indices, including Theil L index, Theil T index, and Atkinson’s A(1) and A(2) indices, were used in order to test the measurement reliability. According to the results obtained by our research team, in Russia, the contribution of opportunity inequality to earnings inequality is 18–24%, depending on the measurement procedure. The contribution of opportunity inequality to income inequality is somewhat less, 12–21%. The estimates obtained using the ex-post approach are higher than those using the ex-ante approach. Given that a limited number of circumstance factors were used in the research, it should be considered that the analysis performed allowed us to estimate the lower bound of the contribution of inequality of opportunities to the inequality of income and earnings in the Russian Federation.

The effects of job-related training on the sense of control of male and female workers in Russia

ABSTRACT Using data from the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Study – Higher School of Economics (RLMS), we estimate the relationship between the sense of control, measured as the belief that one has control over one’s important future life circumstances and job-related training for women and men in a transitional context. We test the theory of alternative resources and the critical approaches in the analysis of the role of gender in individual outcomes from training. We show that while job-related training is associated with higher sense of control (measured using Pearlin Mastery Scale), its effect varies by gender and therefore, its absolute value is limited. We conclude that job-related training exacerbates the existing differences in the sense of control between women and men in Russia, which can potentially have prolonged, negative effects on the wider outcomes of women in the labour market.

Income Residential Demand Elasticities for Electricity: Do We Need to Differentiate the Tariff?

This study assesses how the Russian household welfare rate impacts electricity consumption volume. Modeling of Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (RLMS) data provided by the Higher School of Economics (HSE) has revealed a heterogeneous dependency between average per capita family income and electricity consumption volume. Electricity demand is not elastic among both urban and countryside residents. However, urban consumption is better described by a linear function, while rural consumption is better described by a quadratic function. The electricity tariff is not statistically significant for urban residents, whereas the price elasticity of electricity consumption for rural residents is close to 1. Application of lifeline rates for electricity tariffs in certain regions did not affect the level of elasticity of consumption by income, but some anomalies have been identified that indicate forced savings of electricity in order to pay for it at a minimum price. The study provides a divided quantitative assessment of influence of some non-income determinants on electricity demand among urban and countryside residents: number and age of family members, residential property area etc. The conclusion deems increasing block tariffs unreasonable because higher electricity tariffs may affect low-income groups thus raising the national poverty rate. If the cross subsidization problem in Russia is nevertheless addressed by imposing increasing block tariffs, the number of blocks and, respectively, prices must be more than two, while threshold consumption volumes should be estimated taking into account non-income determinants on different levels for different social groups.

СВЕРДЛОВСКАЯ ОБЛАСТЬ: РЕЙТИНГОВЫЙ АНАЛИЗ ДИНАМИКИ ИННОВАЦИОННОГО РАЗВИТИЯ ТЕРРИТОРИИ. ЧАСТЬ 2

Based on the methodology proposed by the Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics (ISSE) of the National Research University “Higher School of Economics” (NRU HSE), an individual profile of innovation development of the Sverdlovsk region is compiled. The study is carried out with the static and dynamic analysis, index and graphical methods and demonstrates the dynamics of innovation development of the region from 2008 to 2017. A comparative analysis shows the relative balance of subindexes, which have a positive development path. The only exception is a subindex for the “Innovation Activities”. During the decade the Sverdlovsk region has shown resistance to adverse changes in the economics and politics. The region remains in the first group of regions with a lag behind the leader of less than 20% in most indicators.

ПАНДЕМИЯ COVID-19: КОНЕЦ ПРИВЫЧНОГО МИРА?

At the round table organized by the electronic journal Bulletin of Moscow Region State University, a discussion of the COVID-19 pandemic impact on the modern world that is familiar to us was held. The main topics of discussion were: assessment of the psychological state of people in Russia and other countries, their reaction to anti-epidemic measures taken by governments; identification of changes in the social, economic, political spheres, as well as in the areas of digitalization and education, brought by pandemic; forecasting geopolitical and geoeconomic shifts that may occur in the world; determination of the place of Russia in the future world order. The experts at the round table were political scientists from Lomonosov Moscow State University, Higher School of Economics, Institute of Sociology of the Federal Scientific Research Sociological Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Ural Federal University named after the first President B. N. Yeltsin, Academy of Social Management, International Organization for Election Monitoring CIS-EMO, Moscow Region State University.

Массовое высвобождение работников: политика стран ОЭСР

According to OECD statistics, in 2003–2013 annual incidence of job displacement varied from 1% to 7% of total number of wage and salary workers aged 20–64. Labour reallocation is a necessary part of labor market flexibility and economic growth however worker displacement generally also leads to an increase in unemployment and to a decrease in the income of those dismissed. Therefore, a set of measures to mitigate the negative consequences of this process is becoming an important direction of labor market policy. Significant cross-country differences in the ratios of re-employment and the size of wage gaps between jobs indicate that a well-designed and effective labor market measures, as well as properly “tuned” institutions, can significantly reduce the social risks of layoffs. Employees of obsolete professions who require serious professional retraining are in the group of primary risk after the displacement. Given the increasing dynamism and flexibility of the labor market throughout the world, the development of a more targeted system of financial support for the dismissed which involves coordinating the payment of benefits of various types, as well as taking into account the interests of vulnerable workers who do not have time to gain the tenure necessary to participate in the voluntary insurance program, is needed. Present study outlines the main policies for mass layoffs in OECD countries. Particular attention is paid to the characteristics of the system of financial support for the displaced workers, including the specifics of unemployment benefits and severance pay, as well as the configuration of active programs in the labor market and the practices of the public employment service. Acknowledgements. The article was prepared within the framework of the Basic Research Program at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE) and supported within the framework of a subsidy by the Russian Academic Excellence Project “5–100”.

Company’s brand orientation: Developing and testing the measuring scale on the example of Russian customer market

The publication was prepared within the framework of the Academic Fund Program at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE) in 2019–2020 grant № 19-01-025 and by the Russian Academic Excellence Project ‘‘5-100’’.

Сетевая модель взаимодействия кафедры вуза и компаний-партнеров для развития эмоционального интеллекта у студентов – будущих HR-менеджеров

The article discusses the development of emotional intelligence of HRmanagers. Experience of organization of network interaction of the Department of Organizational Psychology of “Higher School of Economics” in Nizhny Novgorod and HR’s as a way of development of emotional intelligence in students studying at specialization “Human resource management” is presented. The need for cooperation in order to develop emotional intelligence of students on the basis of network interaction is due to the relevance of practical vocational training, combining the resources of partners, expanding their capabilities. The directions, tasks, forms of network interaction, necessary resources, as well as roles implemented by partners are presented. The article draws attention to the importance of creating conditions for interdisciplinary communication in the process of training, “diverting” from the main and secondary forms of training for the development of emotional intelligence, the development of a generalizing independent course “Emotional Intelligence in Business”.